Displaying items by tag: Jeremy Ramey

The Book of Merman is a delightful musical theater piece that beautifully spins the popular Broadway hit, The Book of Mormon.

When doing home-to-home missionary work, I’m sure no one can predict how the day will go. So many different situations can present themselves whether the expected or least expected. From slammed doors to willing listeners to who knows what, each house approached is certainly a new adventure. Well, this day was no exception as our fearless and faith-led Mormons arrive upon a house only to get the surprise meeting of a lifetime. Elder Braithwaite (Alex Iacobucci) and Elder Schumway (Danny Ferenczi) play the two Mormon missionaries who are doggedly going door to door trying to make converts when they discover that the house they have been welcomed into belongs to none other than the legendary Ethel Merman! After being invited inside by Merman (who mistakes the two as salesman), the story soon evolves into an unconventional, but effective journey that takes us down the path of self-acceptance – a path that in many ways teaches us to embrace every part of ourselves. And this path is often hilarious thanks to a very funny script along with a host of original songs that work incredibly well.     

Julie Peterson, who was the understudy for this role in the off-Broadway production, really steals the show as the leading character with her lively personality and spot on singing in that wonderful powerhouse style that the grand dame Ethel Merman was famous for.  

Although the two missionaries played with great energy by Iacobucci and Ferenczi had to wear their missionary suits the whole show, the period costumes by designer Patti Halajian for Merman kept upping the ante on glamour throughout the almost two-hour show and were so much fun to see Peterson perform in.

I really enjoyed this show produced by MadKap Productions at the lovely, intimate - yet airy and comfortable - Skokie Theater.  The set design worked nicely with lighting by Pat Henderson and sound designer Kevin J. Mell.

The Book of Merman was written by Leo Schwartz and D.C. Cathro, with music and lyrics by Leo Schwartz and I absolutely adored the message of all the songs in this especially "A Little Bit of Me" and "Because of You".

The underlying message of this show has to do with so many current issues regarding loving oneself, success and failure at midlife and how getting the encouragement from even one good friend or true fan of your work can revitalize an entire life whose heart has been broken by loneliness and what one may perceive as failures in an otherwise illustrious past. 

"A Little Bit of Me" is a tremendous number for Peterson to shine in vocally which urges the audience to remember that their uniqueness is of the greatest value in life, that being yourself fully in your art and life, no matter what society or even your fans of your quirky style or belief system, is the best way to fulfillment and happiness on earth. 

It’s clever, it’s entertaining and it’s FUN. Keenly directed by Ty Perry with brilliant Musical Direction by Jeremy Ramey, I highly recommend this production for audiences of all ages who will enjoy the lively song and dance numbers and strong messages of positivity. Also, the Skokie Theatre was a great place to see a show with ample free parking right next to the theater and comfortable modern seating. 

The Book of Merman is being preformed at Skokie Theatre through February 26^th. For tickets and/or more show information, click here.

While I’m familiar with Studs Terkel’s oral of history of workers, titled of course ‘Working’, I came into opening night of Theo Ubique’s production of Stephen Schwartz’s musical adaptation completely ignorant of its content, its music, any of it. I didn’t know Schwartz had originally written and staged it in the late 70s. I didn’t know it featured music by a 70s icon, James Taylor. And I didn’t know it had been refreshed in the past decade with tunes by a more modern musical icon, Lin Manuel Miranda. Sometimes it’s nice to come into a show blissfully ignorant; doing so gives you those rare moments of surprise that come in adulthood.

So, I was surprised by much of it. I was surprised by the musical numbers. And I was surprised by the unevenness of this Broadway giant’s work here. But I was not at all surprised by the enthusiasm and talent on display by the cast assembled at this great little treasure of a theater where Chicago and Evanston meet near the Howard station (its name proudly part of the tasteful set).

The musical numbers were a lot of fun — 70s Broadway stuff since, as I now know, this is 70s Broadway stuff. Musical director and keyboardist Jeremy Ramey (who killed it earlier this year in the same roles for Theo Ubique’s killer Hedwig) has maybe the best time of anyone in the house, channeling his love of music and love of this music through his fingers and his constant movement. His band, featuring Hedwig’s Perry Cowdery on guitar and Carlos Mendoza on drums, as well as Rafe Bradford on bass, are in lockstep the whole way, complementing both the cast and the score.

A couple members of said cast really show off their musical talent here, too. Stephen Blu Allen, who I’d yet to see perform, impressed with his overall talent. Maybe the youngest member of the cast, he moved like a veteran and sang like one, too, possessing a smooth voice that worked as well as a lead instrument as it did when hitting just the right harmonies when accompanying his castmates. The presence of Cynthia F. Carter, who’s quickly become one of my favorite local actors and singers (having seen her shine in the Black Ensemble Theater’s tributes to Mahalia Jackson and Chuck Berry), assured me upon seeing her name in the playbill that I was in good hands. And wouldn’t you know it — I was in the steady and experienced hands of both her stewardess and her streetwalker, and blown away by her cleaning woman’s closing number, “If I Could Have Been.”

And that number’s where I’ll list my gripe — only one gripe, really — a gripe not with the players, but with the piece itself. The show could’ve ended right there, with Carter’s number as the closer. But it kept going and kept preaching. When Schwartz lets the characters and their lives do the talking, ‘Working’ works. But when he tries to sum up what the workers have said, wrapping it up all tidy-like and preaching to the audience, it gets, well, a bit preachy. Any audience deserves the playwright’s respect, especially an audience there to see an adaptation of a book by Studs Terkel. They don’t — we don’t — need to be told what to think. We just need a work that’ll make us think, whatever that thinking might be and wherever that thinking might lead.

In ‘Working’’s first half, there’s more of that preaching going on. A schoolteacher played by Loretta Rezos preaches at us with all the stereotyped gripes about kids these days (especially those in neighborhoods where schoolteachers might be especially harried) — knives and drugs and Ritalin, but no respect and no grasp of the English language (except as a second language). Michael Kingston’s moneymaking and money-worshiping businessman is more of the same — a stereotype of money and business without anything new to say about it. But in the second half, both Rezos and Kingston get characters with more to do and thus more to say. Rezos’ restaurant worker gets perhaps my favorite number, turning the work of waiting tables into an art. And Kingston’s “Joe” brings the feels without the heavy-handed attempts to get them as his elderly titular character monologues about watching housefires and long-ago waltzes and old Sunday drunks with cash hidden in their socks.

I can’t forget the last two members of this talented cast, all of whom play multiple characters. Jared David Michael Grant is the show’s heart, as a long-haul trucker, as a laid-off worker, and especially as the fireman at one of those housefires Joe spends his retirement chasing. The firefighter’s soliloquy, not just about the work of first responders but about the world they respond to, was every bit as meaningful as it must’ve been when Terkel and Schwartz encountered it over forty years ago. And Kiersten Frumkin is sort of the cast’s utility worker — in a play about such folks — nimbly playing a millworker, a lot lizard, a housewife, and more. It’s her last worker, a woman proudly watching the child she’s raising grow, that’s her best, and features a beautiful duet with Allen’s nursing home worker.

So, while the play itself is far from perfect, it gets better after intermission. And while the play itself is far from perfect, its cast perfectly plays the many roles they’re asked to play. And, isn’t an imperfect what workers and their worlds are? As Allen’s southside community organizer says late in ‘Working’, “history is made up of a lot of little people,” and ‘Working’ gives all of those little people a voice and a stage to tell their messy, imperfect, and real stories of ‘Working’ and of life, now through January 26 at what’s become one of my favorite spots, Theo Ubique on Howard in Evanston.

If you haven’t already made plans to see 'Hello Again' at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, don’t wait another minute! Director/Choreographer Brenda Didlier’s reimagination of this 1993 off-Broadway musical.

The story is composed of 10 interwoven vignettes focusing on 10 love affairs portrayed in a frolicking, whimsical, lighthearted tone and yet layered in the heaviness of sadness, loneliness, and emotional emptiness.

Performed in the intimate cabaret setting where the cast and audience were close enough to touch added another layer of depth to the characters as they were able to perform in normal voice levels and eye level, making the connection between the characters and the audience members more real, intimate, and believable.

The love affairs take place throughout the 20th century, so the scenes and the musical numbers cover 100 year of musical styles, wardrobes and fashion, and historical events and lifestyles. Music Director/Conductor Jeremy Ramey and the orchestra produced the perfect mood as he helped us travel from New York City in 1900 to present with stop offs in a 1930’s movie house, a 1970’s disco, and even a stop on a luxury liner in 1912. The five-piece orchestra produced a full sound to fill the room when required but never drew us away from the characters. Costumes and sets were fast-changing and minimalist, but eye catching and definitely transformative with the changing timeline.

As for the stars of the show, I was delighted that the entire cast are the stars together. While each brought their strengths to their characters, they all complemented each other perfectly and each of the love affairs played an equally important part in the overarching story. Neala Barron’s (The Actress) and Christopher Ratiff’s (The Soldier), both Jeff Award nominees for 110 in the Shade (Boho), lend their strong vocals and acting skills to a very talented cast.

I certainly felt an emotional connection to several of the characters, specifically the Husband (Royen Kent), the Writer (Max J. Cervantes) and the Senator (Courtney Jones). All of the characters were very honest and relatable.

While all the scenes and numbers were exceptional as well, a couple of my favorites include the opening number “Hello Again” featuring the Whore (Megan Elk) and the Soldier (Ratliff), “The One I love” featuring the Young Thing (Marco Tzunux) and the Writer (Cervantes)and “The Bed Was Not My Own” featuring the Senator (Jones) and the Whore (Elk).

'Hello Again' continues at Theo Ubique through November 3, 2019. This is an excellent show which I highly recommend.

I’ve probably said this before — the sheer volume of shows we here in Chicago have on offer makes me count my lucky stars whenever I enter a theater, be it for an opulent touring production or for a more intimate local performance. But it’s always the latter for which I feel even more blessed — that I am, that we all are, privileged to witness the variety and virtuosity of talented artists who ply their trade around town. And no show has left me smiling more widely, tapping my toe as hard, humming along as loud, and feeling more blessed to be a witness to Chicagoland’s theater scene as Theo Ubique’s current production of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s now-classic Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Entering the Theo Ubique Cabaret for this show, you enter the show’s world immediately — a bar and a black box, both — as the tools of a rock band’s trade sit onstage and colorful and off-color and culturally significant graffiti decorates the walls around it. Along with the earplugs offered at the door, Colt Frank’s simple but striking set lets you know you’re in for an evening of rock ‘n’ roll, and the best kind, to boot — the kind that’ll piss off those it’s supposed to and provoke those it’s meant for.

And an evening of rock ‘n’ roll it was! Will Lidke, headlining the show and fronting its band The Angry Inch, turns what was an Off-Broadway and Broadway musical about a rock frontwoman’s concert into said concert. Lidke’s got the posture, the preening, and the pipes to pull it off, too. Strutting on heels, flashing his fishnets, and flaunting wig after wig (all of them designed by Keith Ryan), Lidke’s Hedwig is transfixing from start to finish, equal parts Transformers-era Lou, Ziggy-era Bowie, and East German derelict and diva. He tears things apart on numbers like “Tear Me Down” and “Sugar Daddy,” breaks our hearts with “Wicked Little Town,” and makes us all a part in the singalong “Wig in a Box.” I kept thinking to myself, what I’d give to see Lidke front a band in a small rock club, and then I’d realize, I’m getting to see that right here at Theo Ubique!

Equally stage-worthy is Jacob Gilchrist (AKA Mikki Miraj), who plays Hedwig’s first husband as well as her backup singer on our side of the Berlin Wall/cabaret stage. Each time we were graced with Gilchrist’s enthusiastic song and dance, I’d think they’d be someone I’d love to see fronting a band, too. And wouldn’t you know it — by show’s end my wish came true when Gilchrist came out as Hedwig’s one-time understudy in life, rock star Tommy Gnosis.Lidke and Gilchrist are joined by a ridiculously talented cast and band. As Hedwig’s spouse and sidekick Yitzhak, Brittney Brown shows she’s got perhaps the best voice of the bunch. And as Hedwig’s Berlin mutter and his backup singer East, Adriana Tronco keeps up with her castmates throughout.

And the whole shebang wouldn’t be a banging rock show without a killer rock band, The Angry Inch. Led by pianist and musical director Jeremy Ramey, these guys KILL. Guitarist Perry Cowdery gets things started by shredding “America the Beautiful.” Jakob Smith, also on guitar, switches between electric and acoustic as the mood requires. Joseph Drzemiecki brings the bong-rattling bass. And drummer Carlos Mendoza brings the beat.

So, if you want an intimate rock show, see Theo Ubique’s Hedwig. If you want to see a production of a musical that’s now hung around long enough to reach classic status, see Theo Ubique’s Hedwig. And if, like me, you just love being reminded what terrific talent our wicked little town’s blessed with, see Theo Ubique’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch from now through the end of July.

A wondrous evening of sonorous music awaits you at The Bridges of Madison County. The story was also a 1995 film (Clint Eastwood directed and starred opposite Meryl Streep, who won an Oscar) then was translated into this Broadway musical in 2012 - all based on Robert Waller’s blockbuster 1992 romantic novel – 60 million copies sold worldwide.  

For this show, directed by Fred Anzevino, Theo Ubique’s cozy new cabaret playhouse on Howard Street gives us an unimaginably intimate performance. It is like a jewel box setting for a chamber opera, and features the immensely talented Kelli Harrington - a Broadway bel canto if ever there were one.  

The tale is really a reverie on romantic love, and paths not taken, as the married but lonely Italian-American, Francesca (Harrington) questions her life as an Iowa farm wife with two teenaged children. Her considerate, dutiful but uninspiring husband Bud brought her home as a war bride from a devastated Naples to his Madison County farm – a place as foreign to her roots and soul as the other side of the moon.

While Bud (Carl Herzog) is away at the Iowa State Fair with their teenagers Michael (Christopher Ratliff) and Carolyn (Peyton Shaffer), a National Geographic photographer, Robert Kincaid (Tommy Thurston) rings Francesca’s doorbell seeking directions. It turns out he has recently photographed Naples and happens to bring the issue featuring his photographs of her lost home. This helps triggers a torrid, four-day affair.

The drama unfolds at a leisurely pace. It is a low-key tale of self-reflection, befitting the emotional struggles of the Robert and Francesa as they weigh running away together. Just this side of becoming saccarine, The Bridges of Madison County's underlying story appealed to men and women, as does this show. It analyzes the values of duty and commitment, and where lies the duty of the chivalrous Robert Kincaid and the ultimately faithful Francesa. The lovely, harmonic music by Jason Robert Brown is more tone poems than Broadway numbers - perfectly suited to the remarkable Kelli Harrington, who teaches voice and has a string of Jeff Award honors.

In a class all by herself, Harrington sings and evokes in parallel, like a fine diva – an arched eyebrow, a furtive look, shaking her locks – it’s really quite stunning to witness. The elegant chamber music ensemble led by Jeremy Ramey emphasizes cello, violin, and keyboard. Francesca’s role dominates the musical minutes, with Robert as her partner in emotional upheaval countering with a comparably challenging song book. Tommy Thurston acquits himself admirably, in a complex role. 

Among the standouts were Shaffer and Ratcliff as completely convincing teens who sing wonderfully; and Molly LeCaptain as Robert’s ex Marian (she also plays Francesca’s sister Chiara) – backing herself beautifully on guitar in a solo. Plaudits to Kate Harris, whose performance I loved as neighbor Marge, always supportive, not too intrusive, who lives a parallel life of love and loss. Harris has a wonderful stage delivery, and played so realistically a woman aging over the years.

This is my second show at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, and because I like the space so much I am tempted to see everything this season. Theo Ubique allows you to order dinner in advance, and the  performers serve before curtain and during. Or you can do as I did and sit in a bar stool and run a tab (no serving during the show itself, of course.) I have two related suggestions: for ticket buyers, because the theater has no lobby, you can’t be seated after curtain. (I learned that when I was a few minutes late for a performance. So be early.) The other suggestion I have is for a minor adjustment to the sound system, which is really pretty good. It could just be my ears, but certain upper vocal ranges seemed constrained.

Recommended See The Bridges of Madison County through April 21, 2019 at Theo Ubique, 721 Howard Street, Evanston.

*Extended through May 5th

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theater has kicked-off the opening of its tailor-built home, with a very good production of The Full Monty – a Broadway musical adapted by Terrence McNally and David Yazbeck from a well-regarded 1997 British film.  The troupe was crammed into the heartland Café and No Exit bar for years before landing at this wonderful space.

Smaller Chicago venues have developed something new in artfully scaling back big Broadway musicals scaled to storefront proportions (for example, this year’s Grand Hotel at Theater Wit). The Full Monty at Theo Ubique is exceptionally fun, partly because of the immersive nature of the new theater.

True to classic cabaret, the performers at Theo Ubique double as servers, waiting on tables and then delivering drinks, even dinner (if per-ordered). The bar is within the theater, and one may watch the show from barstools, around cocktail tables on the floor, or from theater seating on risers up to the back wall. I sat at the bar, a great vantage point for both the band and the stage, and for the bartender (though drinks are served only before after and during intermission.)

That strategy is not only  practical, but it eliminates the fourth wall. The serving aisles double as entryways for actors, who may even deliver lines while sitting next to ticket holders. So, we are in the show, while watching it. So, Five Stars for the theater and its concept. I will definitely do the dinner package when I return.

This version of The Full Monty loses the nuance of the movie, about Yorkshire steelworkers who put on a Chippendales-style strip show to earn bucks to start a new life – aiming to outdo the strippers by taking it all off (“the full Monty”). McNally’s version, set in Buffalo, carries a bit of New York theater world lens which creates characters like the brassy, foul-mouthed piano player Jeanette (though perfectly brought to life by Kate Harris).

The women in these men’s lives are largely supporting characters to their spouses/exes, but when the spotlight hits them, we hear and see real talent: including Molly LeCaptain as Georgie, Dave’s supportive wife; and Anna Dvorchak as Isabel, Jerry’s ex. A standout is young Sean Zielinski as Nathan, Dave’s son, who loans his dad $1,000 to secure the stripping gig.

But the songs by David Yazbek and portraits of these ordinary, gentle American males (they are not Alphas but Betas) - rings largely true especially in the hands of this talented troupe. Matt Frye as Jerry Lukowski is very strong as the mastermind of the scheme for the show. Nick Druzbanski as his best buddy and co-conspirator is great. The men are taught something about stripping by a seriously defined gay professional stripper, Keno (John Cardone).

Another McNally touch is that two of the six males – Malcom (Joe Giovannetti) and Ethan (Neil Stratman) --  come out as a gay couple, but their co-strippers are unfazed. Marc Prince as Horse is without question the best dancer, and brings a vulnerability in his performance as a “big black male” saddled with expectations. As to skin, Horse is the only 10 when it gets down to it, with Malcom and Ethan roughly 7, and the others convincingly ordinary, hairy, married American males.

As for the music, from the first note the seven-piece band led by Jeremy Ramey is polished and pitch perfect – a wonderful footing for the show. And the acting and singing is very good, but it was not so evident opening night due to technical unevenness in the overhead microphone pickups. This resulted in performers being overshadowed by the amplified and mixed instrumentalists. Nevertheless, the acting and singing was really pretty good, and the sound has doubtless been addressed.  

Also noteworthy, the choreography by Sawyer Smith, especially evident in the scene where the men learn to dance by adapting moves by Michael Jordan. That was a truly convincing performance.

Theo Unique Cabaret Theatre is highly recommended. See The Full Monty there through January 27, 2019. www.theo-u.com

I thoroughly enjoyed this Hell in a Handbag Production starring the divine Caitlin Jackson, as the “Divine Miss M”, Bette Midler. The show takes us to the early days of Midler's career playing for gay audiences at the Continental baths for two years before her album, The Divine Miss M was released. 

Back in 1987 when I moved to New York after college I actually lived in The Ansonia for four years, a pre- war luxury building on New York's upper west side. I heard about the history of the building which included an entire circus complete with live elephants at one time living in the penthouse, and always wished I could have lived there in its heyday, when The Continental Baths was a gay bathhouse in the basement of The Ansonia Hotel, which was opened in 1968 by Steve Ostrow.

The features of this bathhouse included a disco dance floor, a cabaret lounge, sauna rooms, a narrow "Olympia Blue" swimming pool, bunk beds in public areas, and tiny rooms as one would find in any bathhouse. The facility had the capacity to serve nearly 1,000 men, 24 hours a day.

Jackson's MC, played adorably by Chad, mentions just a few of the features of the bathhouse like a vending machine which dispensed among other things KY Jelly, and a warning system that tipped off patrons when police arrived. He also points out an STD clinic, a supply of a lice-killing shampoo in the showers and how the hetero general public discovered the great shows going on underground and “ruined the scene". The baths were advertised as reminiscent of "the glory of ancient Rome".

Caitlin Jackson really captures the outrageous, open-minded spirit of Bette Midler. Most importantly though Jackson has the voice to really do justice to Midler’s renditions of “Superstar”, “Chattanooga Choo Choo”, and a sexy, bawdy cover of Bessie Smith’s “Empty Bed Blues”. Jackson also shines in her performances of “Chapel of Love”, “Hey Mambo” and delivered a heart wrenching, yet uplifting, “You Gotta Have Friends”.

Few people know that Barry Manilow was Bette Midler's accompanist during these years. Talk about two superstars finding each other at the right time! Jeremy Ramey as Barry Manilow is hysterical and really gets some great laughs as he plays the piano and captures the talented artist’s well known panache and flash. 

The show is filled out with the MC and two cutie pie twinks clad only in white towels the entire show played by TJ Crawford and Will Wilhelm. Although they are the author's invention they seem perfectly part of the show, giving Bette (Jackson) time to change in and out of her glamorous bosom enhancing outfits for number after great number. 

I really have to hand it to Caitlin Jackson, whose voice is capable of hitting Midler's high and low notes with seeming ease. Jackson also does her best in this slightly short production (1 hour 15 minutes with one intermission) to convey Bette Midler's HUGE personality and deeply penetrating sense of loneliness and compassion for the “cast outs” of the world - the ones "waiting on the corner for their friends to return."

Even if the songs were not actually part of Midler's bath house days, I left yearning to hear more, simply because Caitlin Jackson's voice was such a JOY to listen to and her face a wonderful mirror of Bette Midler's enthusiasm for life and love of the gay community without ever becoming a caricature.

 Highly Recommended. 

Bette, Live at the Continental Baths is being performed at Stage 773 through September 10th. More show info can be found at www.stage773.com.